


Let's Do Lunch

by NoisyNoiverns



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 17:21:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16371860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoisyNoiverns/pseuds/NoisyNoiverns
Summary: While theNormandyis in dry-dock, the whole crew gets a chance to rest, relax, and catch up with friends and loved ones. Liara decided to make a call out to Terminus.





	Let's Do Lunch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RockPaperbackScissors](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockPaperbackScissors/gifts).



Feron peered out over the Strip, hand over his eyes to block out the bright lights. “Do you see her?”

Next to him, Tazzik grunted. “’Course not. Place is full of tall species, how the fuck do you think I’m supposed to see some bite-size asari in all this?”

Feron scoffed. “You’re, what, two and a half meters tall? If _you_ can’t see her...” He shook his head and checked his chrono. “Goddess of oceans, she’s thirteen minutes late. Where _is_ she?”

“You don’t like when I answer questions.” Tazzik grumbled to himself and pulled up his omni-tool. A few beeps, and he asked his comm, “Hey, T’Soni, me and the rainbow-face are waiting where you said, fuck are you?”

The comm crackled for a second, then a voice rose out of his speaker. “Is it really that time alr- oh, _Goddess,_ I’m late, I’m sorry, Tazzik, I lost track of time. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Tazzik grunted an acknowledgment, then closed his ’tool and looked at Feron. “There’s your answer.”

Feron rolled his eyes, then went back to scanning the crowd. Sure enough, not long after, the door to Tiberius Towers down the street opened and a familiar pale blue blob hurried out and turned their way. “Over there.” He cupped his hands over his mouth and hollered, “Liara! Over here!”

It was probably unnecessary, with a krogan-sized salarian standing right next to him, but he _felt_ like he should.

Liara scuttled up, hastily stuffing datapads in the bag she’d slung over her shoulder. “Goddess, I’m _so_ sorry, you two, I was visiting with Shepard, and I lost track of time, and--”

“Hey, easy, easy, it’s alright by me,” Feron said, putting his hands up to placate her. “And it’s not like the big guy cares as long as he gets paid either way. Right, ugly?”

Tazzik grunted. “See? That’s a ‘yes’ with him,” Feron assured Liara. _Except when it means no, or maybe, or shut up,_ he decided not to add.

Liara looked skeptical. “If you’re sure...”

“Hey, we’re not getting shot at, so it’s a plus for me,” he joked.

Liara pursed her lips, then sighed. “Well, alright.” She looked up at the wall of salarian behind him. “Tazzik, I think we’ll be alright on our own, if you want to leave.”

Tazzik grunted again, a man of (sometimes almost painfully) few words, and turned away. As he lumbered off, Liara called after him, “Where will you be?”

One big, meaty hand raised to point towards the casino, then made the universal sign for _drinking._ “No surprise there,” Feron commented.

Liara sighed and shook her head as Feron turned back to focus on her. “I suppose I can’t blame him, with the war going the way it is. How’s everything been in your end of the galaxy?” Her lips turned up in an attempt at a smile. “I see you’ve at least stayed in one piece.”

He shrugged modestly. “Hey, you know me. I might not have as long a lifespan as you, but I’m hard to kill. If even Tazzik, a squad of Shadow Broker thugs, and a bunch of Collectors had a hard time taking me down, the Reapers and Cerberus are in for a ride.” He grinned for a moment, then dropped it and folded his arms across his chest, thinking it over. “Honestly, we haven’t run into the Reapers much. Not enough population density for them to care, I guess. Everybody’s fringe colonies seem to be evacuating pretty okay. Cerberus is the big issue. Dunno what they’re up to, and something tells me I don’t really want to, but...” He shuddered and shook his head. “It’s fun to blow them up.”

Liara’s tiny smile seemed distinctly ominous to Feron. “Oh, believe me, they won’t be a problem soon enough. We’re making sure of that.”

Feron blinked slowly at her, then shook his head. “You know, sometimes you say some very scary things, did you know that? You should know that. I just think that’s something you should know.”

She laughed then, just a short little burst of a chuckle, but it was the sweetest sound Feron had heard in months. _Send me across the sea to a chorus of your laughter._

Gods, he was turning into a romantic. _It’s the war stress,_ he told himself. Facing extinction could make anybody into a poet, surely.

He must have been smiling. His face ached slightly when he shook his head to clear it of sappy nonsense, like it did when he’d been smiling without realizing. Kind of an annoying habit, but something he did a lot around Liara, he’d noticed. But her smile was still there when he looked back at her, a faint little upturn of her lips and a sparkle in her eyes. “I’m glad you’re alright, Feron,” she said, reaching out to grip his bicep in a friendly sort of way. “My work would be a lot more difficult without you helping out.”

Feron swallowed and shrugged modestly. _Oh boy, a compliment._ “Yeah, well, like I said. It’s nice to actually be _doing something_ again, even if it is a war for survival.” He coughed into his fist. _Change the subject._ “How’s your end of things? _Normandy_ gang still as crazy as you always said?”

Another sharp little laugh. “You wouldn’t _believe._ Somehow, things have gotten even _more_ insane.” She checked her chrono, then turned and motioned for him to follow. “Here, I _did_ promise you lunch, and I find stories about Shepard and friends are always best when accompanied by food.”

Feron perked up as he went to trot alongside her. “Right, you said something about a sushi place?”

The look that crossed Liara’s face could only be described as _pained,_ but it was only there for a moment before she shook her head. “Yes, well, you _see...”_ Now it was her turn to cough into her fist. “I sent you that message while we were still on the _Normandy,_ in transit back to the Citadel. Unfortunately, our first night here...”

He blinked, processing, then groaned. “Don’t tell me. _Spectre business?”_

She shrugged and gave him a sheepish little _what-are-you-gonna-do_ smile, and he laughed. “Figures. You and your friends, Liara.”

She gave him a friendly push. “ _You’re_ one to talk,” she teased. “But, really, it’s a good story. There’s a soup-and-sandwich place in the arcade Specialist Traynor – our comms specialist, that is, a very nice young human – she recommended it to me, we can get lunch there and I’ll tell you what happened.”

“If you say so,” Feron said with a wry grin. This was kind of nice, in its own way, just bantering with Liara like they were running around Omega again. Just like old times. Old, lower-stakes, not-caught-up-in-a-war-for-survival times.

That was still his impression after they’d gotten their food (noodle soup for him, something called a “Philly cheesesteak” Liara said another of the _Normandy_ crew had introduced her to for her), sat down, and Liara had regaled him with the tale of exactly _what in the name of every deity ever_ had happened those first few days of shore leave.

“A _clone?_ You’re _kidding. A_ _ **clone**_ _!?”_ Feron repeated incredulously, eyes feeling like they were about to pop out of his skull. “That’s _possible!?”_

“That’s what _we_ said!” Liara enthused, face plastered with a rare face-splitting grin, clearly delighting in his reaction. _“Apparently,_ it was so top-secret, ‘top-secret’ is an understatement. Miranda told us she thought the body had been destroyed after the real Shepard was rebuilt. Ethical concerns.”

Feron snorted. “Like Cerberus cares about _ethics.”_ Images he’d aggressively repressed, faces under helmets split and glowing with tech they were desperately trying to reject but couldn’t, clawed at the back of his mind, and he shuddered, stamping them back down. _Varren pups. Winning at cards. Good things, Feron, good things._

Liara shook her head with a shrug. “Well, it’s a non-issue, now. Makes for a good story, though, doesn’t it?”

Feron considered, then shrugged and took a sip of his drink. “Damn right. Could you imagine a vid of that? You could sell the story rights and make a fortune. Everyone loves a good Spectre story. Especially the ones that sound too wild to be real.”

Liara smiled. “Yes, even when the Spectre themselves and the Council all swear it’s true. I suppose it helps make sure the _real_ secrets stay secrets, doesn’t it?”

The joke left unsaid got a smirk out of him, and her smile widened slightly in return. He raked his spoon around his bowl, searching for any noodles that might have escaped his notice. “Thanks for buying lunch, Liara. It’s nice to sit back and catch up now and then.”

She nodded, carefully re-wrapping her sandwich so she could get to more of it without biting the wrapper. “It’s my pleasure, really.” She looked up at him from under her brow, then added, almost _too_ casually, “We’re going to be in Kithoi for another week or so, while the _Normandy_ finishes her retrofits. And while Shepard and Engineer Adams soothe the engineers whose work was interrupted by our little adventure and has to be restarted, of course. Perhaps you’d like to meet up again soon? Armax Arena is just down the block, we could shoot some digital Collectors like the old days.”

Feron froze, brain blanking out briefly before he regained control and kick-started his thought process again. He considered, then allowed himself a small smile and nodded. “I’d like that, sure. Day after next, mid-afternoon?”

She smiled, and he could have lost himself in the gleam in her eyes. “It’s a date.”


End file.
